Cardinals rally to beat skidding Mets

NEW YORK(AP) -- Albert Pujols made it sound so simple. All he had
to do to snap out of his brief slump was make sure he had good
swings.

Facing the New York Mets' pitching may have helped, too.
Whatever the reason, Pujols put that mini-funk behind him in
style Tuesday night.

Pujols hit a grand slam in the 10th inning for his second homer
of the game and the Cardinals rallied for a 12-7 victory over
the sliding New York Mets.

"I'm human. I'm not a machine," said Pujols, disputing a popular
SportsCenter commercial on ESPN. "I work hard. I'm ready every
day. I didn't put my head down. I don't change myself and I
don't change my approach."

Pujols finished with four hits and five RBIs for the Cardinals,
ending an 0 for 13 skid with his ninth multihomer game of the
season. Ryan Ludwick also went deep and drove in two runs for
St. Louis.

The Cardinals scored eight times in the last three innings to
hand New York its fifth loss in six games. With two out and the
bases loaded in the 10th, Sean Green replaced Pedro Feliciano
(4-4) and hit Mark DeRosa on the left elbow with his first pitch
to give St. Louis an 8-7 lead.

"That's not how I had it planned out but (I've) just been
erratic with my location," said Green, whose wild pitch plated
the deciding run in New York's 3-2 loss to Arizona on Friday
night, "and it's cost us the last couple outings."

With the Citi Field crowd still jeering Green, Pujols hit an 0-2
pitch into the seats in left to tie Ernie Banks' NL record of
five slams in a season set in 1955. The All-Star slugger is 7
for 9 with 24 RBIs with the bases loaded this year and leads the
majors with 36 homers. He is one slam behind the major league
record for a season held by Travis Hafner and Don Mattingly.

Kyle McClellan (3-2) pitched a scoreless 10th for St. Louis,
which managed to get the win despite a shaky outing by Joel
Pineiro.

Johan Santana hit a two-run double and pitched a season-high
eight innings for New York, which fell nine games behind NL wild
card-leading Colorado and lost another player to an injury.
Second baseman Luis Castillo slipped trying to avoid a glove on
the dugout steps, spraining his left ankle after he grounded out
leading off the seventh. X-rays were negative.

"I don't really know what else we have to go through, to be
honest to you guys," Santana said. "We've had to go through
everything this season and we're trying to battle through it.
We're trying to pick each other up and trying to step it up. But
reality is that we've got to have everybody together and
healthy."

St. Louis scored two runs in the ninth to tie it at 7 and hand
Francisco Rodriguez his fourth blown save in 28 opportunities
this season. Rick Ankiel and Julio Lugo opened the inning with
consecutive doubles, and Skip Schumaker had an RBI single with
one out.

"It was really embarrassing out there," Rodriguez said. "I was
unable to make pitches when I needed to."

Dodgers 17, Brewers 4=

At Los Angeles, Manny Ramirez ended his 10-game RBI drought with
a homer and a two-run double, and Matt Kemp had a homer among
his four hits while driving in five runs in Los Angeles' victory
over Milwaukee.

Kemp had two hits and two RBIs during the seven-run sixth
inning, while Russell Martin reached base five times and had
three RBIs in the Dodgers' highest-scoring home game in 30
years. With a season-high in runs on 18 hits, Los Angeles
improved the majors' best record to 66-41.

The Dodgers hadn't scored 17 runs at Dodger Stadium since May
25, 1979, against Cincinnati.

Hiroki Kuroda (4-5) earned his first win since July 3.

Ramirez homered off Yovani Gallardo (10-8) in the fifth. He
hadn't driven in a run since his pinch-hit grand slam July
22.

Diamondbacks 6, Pirates 0=

At Pittsburgh, Arizona's Yusmeiro Petit took a no-hitter into
the eighth inning and combined with Leonel Rosales on a
one-hitter.

Petit (2-5), who snapped a seven-game losing streak with his
first victory in more than 11 months in his most recent start,
walked three and struck out four in eight innings. The
right-hander threw a season-high 107 pitches - 73 for strikes -
in going longer than seven innings for the first time in his
career.

Ronny Cedeno lined a single to left after Ramon Vazquez led off
the eighth with a walk, ending the quest for what would have
been the second no-hitter in Diamondbacks history.

Rockies 8, Phillies 3=

At Philadelphia, Garrett Atkins homered and had a season-high
four RBIs and Jason Hammel pitched into the seventh inning as
Colorado won its fifth straight.

Atkins hit a two-out, two-run homer off Jamie Moyer (10-8) in
the second inning, then added a two-run double in the sixth
after the Phillies cut the lead to 4-2 on a home run by Jimmy
Rollins.

Colorado added two runs in the inning to put the game out of
reach. The Rockies finished with 11 hits as every starter except
second baseman Clint Barmes had at least one.

Hammel (6-6) gave up three runs and nine hits in 6 2-3
innings.

Cubs 6, Reds 3=

At Cincinnati, Left-hander Tom Gorzelanny turned his first
appearance for Chicago into his best of the season, allowing
three hits and driving in a run.

The Cubs got Gorzelanny (4-1) and reliever John Grabow from
Pittsburgh in a five-player deal Thursday. He went 7 1-3
innings, giving up one run. Wladimir Balentien hit a two-run
homer off Angel Guzman in the ninth.

Gorzelanny had an RBI single off Johnny Cueto (8-9), setting the
Reds on course for their 14th loss in 15 games. Cincinnati has
dropped eight straight - all at home - for its longest losing
streak in four years.

Nationals 6, Marlins 4=

At Washington, Adam Dunn capped Washington's six-run
eighth-inning rally with a two-run homer and the Nationals ended
a 10-game losing streak against Florida.

Dunn struck out in his first three at-bats before lining a 3-2
pitch from Dan Meyer over the left-field fence, breaking a 4-4
tie. The Nationals were trailing 4-0 heading into the eighth and
hadn't had a base runner since the first inning as Florida
starter Josh Johnson retired 20 consecutive batters.

But the Nationals got four straight hits to start the inning.
Pinch-hitter Ronnie Belliard's two-run double was the final one,
and that ended Johnson's night.

Nyjer Morgan followed with an RBI groundout off Renyel Pinto
before Cristian Guzman tied the game with a single to right off
Kiko Calero (2-1).

Meyer came on and got the second out before Dunn belted his 28th
homer.

Mike MacDougal earned his ninth save.

Giants 8, Astros 1=

At Houston, Jonathan Sanchez snapped a nine-game road losing
streak, striking out eight in seven shutout innings for San
Francisco.

Sanchez (5-9), who pitched a no-hitter against San Diego on July
10, held Houston to four hits, all singles. The 26-year-old
left-hander was 0-8 with a 6.33 ERA in nine road starts this
season and hadn't won away from home since Sept. 12, 2008, in
San Diego.

Braves 9, Padres 2=

At San Diego, Javier Vazquez (9-7) pitched seven strong innings
and Martin Prado homered and drove in three runs to lead
Atlanta.

Matt Diaz hit a two-run homer and Prado had two RBIs in a
four-run sixth inning as the Braves went ahead 7-2. Atlanta tied
its season high with 17 hits and scored as many runs as it had
in its last four games combined.

San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez had his consecutive games streak
ended at 314 when he was held out of the starting lineup for the
second straight game to give him additional rest. It was the
longest streak in the majors.